Peaches - Peaches Gets Creamed
3D’s Semone Maksimovic chats with the animated and surprisingly softly spoken ‘first lady of electroclash’ – the artist known as Peaches – whose fifth album, I Feel Cream, hits Australian stores on 2 May.
She’s flash, she’s brash, never shied away from coming across all trash, as she raps about her gash, and continued to rise from the ruins of the now desolate electroclash movement. But can Peaches really keep up the game with album number five- With the release of I Feel Cream in Australia early next month, the answer is a most definitely a confident and rather boisterous YES!
“It’s only fitting that [the] Australian release comes first, because they’ve already had a taste of what was to come from shows at Parklife last year,” explains an already media-ed out Peaches at noon on a Monday as our phone lines connect. “I have a soft spot for the country, I’ve always [been] well-received over there, so when it came to previewing the new tracks, I had to take the chance to do it over there first!”
Although the album’s title may give the impression that Ms Merrill Nisker (as her parents lovingly christened her 40 years ago) is still up to her usual tricks (albeit, a tad less crass than usual), the final result proves that she’s taken a big step up, both on production and songwriting – possibly a result of time spent trotting the globe for a few sublime studio trysts with Simian Mobile Disco, Soulwax, Digitalism and Drums of Death.
“Working on the album was more fun this time around,” she laughs cheekily. “Instead of staying in Berlin and working in my own studio, I found myself with the chance to travel to everyone else’s studio and see what they had, how they worked and, most excitingly, play with it all!”
With a collaborative line-up consisting of the crème de la crème of today’s electronic producer scene, it’s hardly surprising to find this studio Goldilocks so inspired by her surroundings that she felt compelled to take a step out of herself and truly give in to the full magic of each collaboration. One of the album’s glistening highlights is the Simian Mobile Disco co-produced Lose You, which sees Peaches tearing away the grunt and grind for a more vulnerable and dulcet tone, with achingly beautiful results. “I had a blast working on all of the tracks, but I’d have to say that working with Simian in their studio was definitely a highlight,” she says. “The possibilities were endless, their studio is filled with the most amazing equipment and they were great to work with. It was a real change to working in my studio!”
Her Soulwax co-production on first single Talk To Me is as dirty, dancefloor-ready, rough and ballsy as you’d expect; whilst Digitalism took her to a darker, heavier corner of the club for Mommy Complex. It is, however, her work with Drums of Death on the album’s title track that manages to grip you tightly by the hand and drag you forth, front and centre on the dancefloor, with its stalking acid beat. It’ll without doubt swiftly take its place as one of the tracks of the year (and that’s before it’s been given the remix treatment).
With the new matured sound that comes with I Feel Cream, as Nisker enforces a tighter curfew on her potty-mouthed antics and lightening the load of her usual gender-envious lyrical content, things on the live front are also being given a general shake up and added spice – a departure from her last shows at last year’s Parklife. As we speak, she’s preparing to continue her week of heavy rehearsals in the lead up to her first big London show of the year, and keeping the audience on the edge of their seats is Peaches’ main aim.
“There’s going to be costumes,” she laughs – as if we’d never expect them. “But this time I’m going to have a few good tricks up my sleeve to keep the audience guessing.” Including a personal laser… “I had someone make me a laser that I can play and do all sorts of things with, so the audience can look forward to me playing a laser on stage this time!”
Following a handful of shows on the UK/European circuit, will be a hectic list of dates across the States, which is likely to be her biggest to date, as the new album rekindles her ongoing fling with the mainstream and takes her to a whole new level. “I have a good feeling about this tour, I’m looking forward to taking the new tracks out on the road. I think it’s going to reach a new crowd this time, as well as keeping the existing audience base happy.
“Mainstream isn’t a word I’m afraid of, I don’t think it’s a word artists should be afraid of. I mean I make music in the hope that it’ll reach its intended audience and they’ll have a chance to hear what I have to say. I never set out to specifically be an underground artist, I have something to say and I’d rather people hear it, than sit in an abandoned record box gathering dust.”
WHO: Peaches
WHAT: I Feel Cream through XL Recordings / Remote Control
WHEN: Out 2 May
MORE: peachesrocks.com